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Making News Today…

CNN/YouTube/Republican Party of Florida Presidential Debate

The top Republican White House hopefuls head to St. Petersburg, Florida this week for the much anticipated CNN/YouTube/Republican Party of Florida Presidential Debate. With the Iowa caucuses just around the corner, this event is sure to be a defining moment in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. CNN’s Anderson Cooper will moderate the debate that will feature questions directly from the voters. Keep an eye on the CNN Political Ticker and CNN Politics for the latest news about the debate, and tune in at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday to watch this historic event live.

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Cheney treated for irregular heartbeat

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Vice President Dick Cheney is expected back at work Tuesday after doctors used an electrical current to correct an irregular heartbeat they discovered Monday morning, the White House reported.

Doctors described the procedure - intended to shock the heart back into normal rhythm - as routine, and Cheney left George Washington University Hospital after about two and a half hours. The 66-year-old vice president has had a history of heart ailments - including four heart attacks dating back to 1978 - and was briefly hospitalized in January 2006 after suffering shortness of breath.

Cheney saw a doctor Monday morning after complaining of a lingering cough from a cold, his office reported. During the appointment, doctors diagnosed him with atrial fibrillation - an irregular beating of the heart's upper chambers that has been linked to an increased risk of stroke. His limousine arrived at the hospital shortly after 5 p.m., a few minutes behind his wife, Lynne. He left about 7:30 p.m.

- CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry

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YouTube effect felt beyond debates

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (CNN) - It was one of the most talked about moments in last year's congressional campaign.

"Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Full Story

- CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser

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Awkward? Bush meets Gore at White House

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former Vice President Al Gore's visit back to the Oval Office Monday could have been an awkward one. Gore and the White House’s current occupant, President Bush, had fought a bitter presidential contest in 2000 from the ballot box to the courthouse. Full Story

- CNN's Tom Foreman and Alexander Mooney

===========================================================Political Hot Topics
(Today's top political stories from news organizations across the country)

Compiled by Lindsey Pope
CNN Washington Bureau

Washington Post: Web Videos Aim Questions At GOP Field
Among the thousands of videos uploaded on YouTube for tomorrow's GOP debate in St. Petersburg, Fla., a question lasting no more than three seconds may prove to be one of the toughest: "What does the word 'Republican' mean to you?"

USA Today: Students Join GOP Debate Via Youtube
When eight Republican presidential candidates meet Wednesday to answer questions coming from citizen videos, the audience will include political activists, local VIPS and Ray Keller, a Nebraska teacher.

New York Times: In Elderly Women, Clinton Sees an Electoral Edge
The many elderly women who turn out for Clinton campaign events have become welcome set pieces, visibly demonstrating the candidate’s effort to highlight her sex and her overtures to female voters, whom the campaign is counting on to propel her to the Democratic presidential nomination.

New York Times: Clinton to Offer an AIDS Policy, Joining Her Main Rivals
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will propose steps today to strengthen the government’s strategy to battle H.I.V. and AIDS in the United States and the rest of the world, becoming the latest Democratic presidential candidate to commit to a significant expansion of federal efforts to combat the epidemic.

Boston Globe: Iowans Bring A Special-Interest Agenda To Caucuses
New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner's decision last week to schedule the state's primary for Jan. 8, five days after the Iowa caucuses but well before the primaries of Michigan and Florida, signaled that New Hampshire and Iowa have succeeded in maintaining their special roles in choosing presidential nominees for yet another election cycle.

Washington Post: Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton Bring Star Power to Iowa
Both are legendary communicators, perhaps the two greatest in their generation. Both helped build an ethic of empathy, turning the public confession into a rite of passage. Both are world-renowned - one for being a former president, the other for a TV show usually identified just by her first name. And now, Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey are set to square off, in Iowa, campaigning for their favorite candidates.

LA Times: Clinton The Organized
She always came prepared. From the first planning sessions for her husband's victorious 1992 presidential run through the final 1994 White House meetings she chaired as the Clinton administration's ill-fated healthcare initiative collapsed, Hillary Rodham Clinton was a force to be reckoned with as a decision-maker.

NY Sun: Giuliani, Huckabee Emerge as Strange GOP Bedfellows
As the Republican presidential race devolves into a five-man free-for-all of sustained attacks and sharp rejoinders, one pair of candidates, Mayor Giuliani and Michael Huckabee, has avoided direct conflict, exchanging more compliments than criticism.

Politico: Politics Still Playing On Big Screen In '08
Dismal returns for politically themed films in 2007 won’t stop the genre from continuing well into next year. Expect to see (or not see, as the case may be) more flicks about the Middle East, more Nixon-era biopics and more spy thrillers ripped from today’s headlines.

Washington Post: Politics Creates Odd Pair: Sanchez and Democrats
It may be among the strangest of political alliances: a former commanding general in Iraq, blocked from a fourth star and forced into retirement partly for his role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and the speaker of the House, desperate to end a war that the general helped start.

Washington Post: GOP Comeback Climb Is Increasingly Steep
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott's resignation announcement on Monday was the latest in a wave of retirements to hit congressional Republicans, making an already difficult 2008 electoral landscape even more complicated for the minority party.

AP: Filner Enters Plea in Airport Incident
Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., has entered a plea days before he was set for trial on assault and battery charges over allegations he pushed a United Airlines baggage employee at Dulles International Airport. As part of the deal he will write a letter of apology to the baggage worker.

* Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holds a health care forum at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, receives an endorsement in Spartanburg, South Carolina and attends an "Organizing for Change" event in Aiken. Later, she visits with teachers and parents and hosts a discussion on education at Bennettsville Middle School in Bennettsville.

* Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, attends an event to honor war veterans and first responders at Chick Fil-A Restaurant in Seneca, South Carolina. Later, McCain holds a town hall meeting in Anderson.

* New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson talks about "A New Direction for American Agriculture" at a farm in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

* Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, participates in a presidential lecture series at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

* Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards speaks at a rally in support of striking Writers Guild of America and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees workers in Washington Square Park in New York City.

* Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, holds town hall meetings in Plymouth, New Hampton and Exeter, New Hampshire. He also attends a Carbon/Nuclear Free Symposium in Concord.

* Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee meets with the press in Orlando, Florida.

* Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, hosts a discussion at the College of Charleston, and attends the grand opening of his campaign headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina. Later, Paul holds a rally at the Omar Shrine Convention Center in Mt. Pleasant.

* Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, campaigns in Allison and Butler, Iowa. Biden also participates in the University of Northern Iowa's Presidential Forum "Back to School: Addressing the Challenges and Opportunities in American Education" in Cedar Falls.